Assignment:

Jezebel (http://jezebel.com/) is an online feminist blog aimed at young women and devoted to pop culture (and some current news events). It includes commentary on current music, tv, movie, fashion, celebrity, and entertainment news, as well as links to the original stories.

Imagine that Jezebel has begun a movie review podcast. As an expert on Women’s Studies, you have been asked to review one of the following movies. View any one of the movies below, and write a script for a 3-5-minute podcast (about 1-2 double-spaced pages) that explains the relevance of the film for young feminists. You may focus on a single women’s studies topic or talk about many of them.

If you are technologically savvy enough, you are welcome to record your review as an audio file as long as you are able to attach it to the Assignments Folder (make sure it works or turn it in early – no late submissions due to technology problems will be accepted).

Scoring:

The review will be scored on how well it does the following:

1. Clearly presents the film and specific examples from it (2 points)
2. Clearly explains the feminist or Women’s Studies topics that can be seen in the film (2 points)
3. Exhibits good organizational and writing skills (1 point)

Movies (choose one – for more information about each movie go to http://www.imdb.com):

• Slums of Beverly Hills (1998 -- dir. Tamara Jenkins; starring Natasha Lyonne and Alan Arkin)
  • This semiautobiographical coming-of-age story follows a lower-middle-class teenager (Lyonne) and her neurotic family in 1976 Tinseltown. [comedy]
• North Country (2005 – dir. Niki Caro; starring Charlize Theron)
  • A fictionalized account of the first major successful sexual harassment case in the United States -- Jenson vs. Eveleth Mines, where a woman who endured a range of abuse while working as a miner filed and won the landmark 1984 lawsuit.[drama]
• Daughters of the Dust (1991 – dir. Julie Dash; starring Cora Lee Day)
  • Languid look at the Gullah culture through the eyes of a family of women living on the sea islands off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia where African folk-ways were maintained well into the 20th Century and was one of the last bastion of these mores in America. Set in 1902. [drama, romance – some subtitles]
• Just Another Girl on the IRT (1992 – dir. Leslie Harris; starring Ariyan A. Johnson)
  • Chantel Mitchell (Ariyan Johnson), a hip, articulate, black high-school girl in Brooklyn, dreams of medical school, a family, and an escape from the generational poverty and street-corner life her friends seem to have accepted as their lot. [drama]
• Antonia’s Line (1995 – dir. Marleen Gorris; starring Willeke van Ammelrooy)
  • Following WWII, Dutch matron establishes and, for several generations, oversees a close-knit, matriarchal community where feminism and liberalism thrive. [drama – in Dutch with subtitles]
• Thelma and Louise (1991 – dir. Ridley Scott; starring Susan Sarandan and Geena Davis)
  • Whilst on a short weekend getaway, Louise shoots a man who had tried to rape Thelma. Due to the incriminating circumstances, they make a run for it but are soon followed closely by the authorities including a local policeman who is sympathetic to their plight. [action/drama]
• Waiting to Exhale (1995 – dir. Forrest Whitaker; starring Whitney Houston and Angela Bassett)
  • Based on Terry McMillan's novel, this film follows four very different African-American women and their relationships with the male gender. [melodrama]
• Working Girl (1988 – dir. Mike Nichols; starring Melanie Griffith)
  • When a secretary's idea is stolen by her boss, she seizes an opportunity to steal it back by pretending she has her boss's job. [comedy]
• 9 to 5 (1980 – dir. Colin Higgins; starring Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, and Dolly Parton)
  • Three female employees of a "sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot" find a way to turn the tables on him. [comedy]
• Adam’s Rib (1949 – dir. George Cukor; starring Katherine Hepburn)
  • The original battle-of-the-sexes film. Domestic and professional tensions mount when a husband and wife work as opposing lawyers in a case involving a woman who shot her husband. [comedy]
• Citizen Ruth (1996 – dir. Alexander Payne; starring Laura Dern)
  • An irresponsible, drug-addicted, recently impregnated woman finds herself in the middle of an abortion debate when both parties attempt to sway her to their respective sides. [comedy/drama]
• Bandit Queen (1994 – dir. Shekhar Kapur; starring Seema Biswas)
  • The movie tells the story of the bandit queen Phoolan Devi who was sent to prison in 1983 and got free in 1994. [drama – in Hindi with subtitles]
• The Kids Are All Right (2010 – dir. Lisa Cholodenko; starring Annette Benning and Julianne Moore)
  • The two children of a lesbian couple bring the sperm donor used for their conception by artificial insemination into their family life. [drama]
• Boys Don't Cry (1999; dir. Kimberly Peirce; starring Hilary Swank and Chloe Sevigny)
  • The story of the life of Brandon Teena, a transgendered teen who preferred life in a male identity until it was discovered he was born biologically female. [drama]
• Orlando (1992; dir. Sally Potter; starring Tilda Swinton)
  • Adaptation of Virginia Woolf's novel about a young English nobleman who lives for over 400 years, even changing sex along the way.

Film synopses all from The Internet Movie Database.